


Dividends

by Gorsecloud



Category: Persona 5, Persona 5 Royal
Genre: Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Oneshot collection, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers, Phantom Thieves of Hearts as Family, Spoilers present but not the main focus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:02:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25398112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gorsecloud/pseuds/Gorsecloud
Summary: So much of his time and energy andlifewent into looking after them, helping them. How could they not do the same, when they saw the opportunities arise?
Relationships: Persona 5 Protagonist & Phantom Thieves of Hearts
Comments: 5
Kudos: 58





	Dividends

**Author's Note:**

> This is entirely the fault of the AkiRen Protection Squad on Discord and y'all should thank them for it. I know I do :U

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw for slight emetophobia at the beginning along with... not quite disordered eating but certainly not _healthy_ eating either

“He never eats well,” Morgana had said. And while Ryuji’s stomach had ached pathetically and his heart had burned with fury - the former a testament to the meal they lost to Wilton’s toilets, the latter a testament to the harsh reminders of adults all too like Kamoshida - it’s those words that linger longest in the back of his head. 

After a week or two, he raises his thoughts to Ann, who can only frown. The two of them hatch a plan - one day while Ryuji runs with Ren after school, Ann scoops up Morgana and proceeds to gently interrogate him about Ren’s eating habits on an afternoon out on the town. 

The picture he paints is one of cups of instant ramen, curry in the morning (his sole consistent meal of any given day), and the occasional bread he manages to get his hands on from the school store at lunch. It includes images of disgusted glares from other students (the few times he tried cafeteria), of meals skipped that are chalked up to nausea or lack of appetite, of budgets carefully made for their metaverse exploits that just don’t leave time or money for a stop by a conbini. 

It isn’t a pretty one, in other words, and it pairs all-too-well in Ryuji’s mind with the picture of Morgana kneading his paws soothingly into Ren’s shoulder as he’d emptied his stomach into the Wilton Hotel toilet. Just as sick, despite eating maybe half as much as Ryuji had. 

A few weeks later, they haul Yusuke out of the metaverse and explain the Phantom Thieves to him at the restaurant on Central Street. It isn’t entirely by coincidence that Ryuji makes sure to order some of the better items on the menu, and Ann offers to pay. The next day Morgana reports that Ren is more vibrant and alert than he’s been for days. And after that point, it’s settled. 

Every time they go into the Metaverse, they drag the whole team out to eat afterwards.

* * *

They each find their own ways to contribute. 

Ryuji, an ex-athlete, knows the best meals to help refuel after a day of burning calories. Futaba isn’t shy about dumping one of her nutritional supplements on top of his food when Ren isn’t looking. Ann is assertive enough to place their orders for all of them, and she and Makoto take it in turns to bully the others, particularly Ren, into finishing a good portion of their meals. Money becomes no object when Haru joins, happily paying for all of it and brooking no arguments. 

Yusuke, the only member of the group not initially privy to their plans, helps more than he could ever know. If it were only to help Ren himself, their leader would be much more able to field their attempts to look after him. Yusuke’s own poor eating habits make it the go-to excuse for their meal excursions, and it becomes a matter of looking out for the team as a whole. 

Of course, there are times when they wouldn’t be going into the Metaverse for days at a time. At first, Ann and Ryuji stumbled their way through, trying to find ways to compensate, mostly relying on Morgana to try to nag at him to eat enough. 

Then came Makoto, who after years of living off her sister’s income, knows how to find good food at a low price. Knows how to portion food up and freeze it so that leftovers could last for days and weeks. And while that helped, she was also the one who pointed out that when ideas were presented to him as a form of pragmatism, or helping them, then he was all the more likely to accept them. And once she’s set them on the right path, they throw themselves at similar ideas with cheerful abandon. 

Ryuji’s mom sometimes “makes too much food,” that needs to be eaten before it went bad. Ann wants “backup” when trying a new restaurant in case any creeps start oogling. And Yusuke - because _here_ they finally rope him in - needs assistance in getting enough food to last him till the next supermarket sales, and whose desperate thriftiness is able to find deals that likewise fit the similarly small amounts of money that Ren allots himself. 

It’s Futaba who is ultimately the greatest help of all during these Metaverse lulls, albeit for an entirely different reason. Because it’s she who marches straight up to Sojiro and tells him how bad Ren’s eating habits actually _are_.

And while Sojiro can’t force Ren to eat, he can certainly start adding a few more sides to Ren’s daily curry - portions increasing in size over time, along with leftovers of other kinds on the bottom shelf of the fridge for him to find. As well as making sure the thing itself is overstocked more often, in case he wants to make anything. 

All of this, along with issuing a standing offer to actually _come over to the house_ sometime for a proper meal. He cites Futaba in this, both as thanks for her recovery and due to her outright demands. Futaba shamelessly accepts responsibility for her crimes. 

It isn’t everything, but it’s something.

* * *

At first, Akechi is somewhat nonplussed at their habits. 

“I would think that with as much time as infiltrations take, you would need this time for other responsibilities,” he says, somewhat confused.

Ren looks cowed and guilty for half a moment before Takamaki is blocking his view of the other boy, looking as outright furious as he’s ever seen her. And then, he realizes, he’s being dragged off by the other girl. The others are clamoring behind them both.

She pulls him around a corner before telling him, bluntly, “He doesn’t need to hear it from you!” 

“I was only making an observation,” he replies, surprised at the collective reaction. They’re not so far he can’t hear the protests the others are making.

“Look,” and here Takamaki sighs, taking a moment and putting a hand on her forehead. Her anger tends to flare quick and bright, like the fire she wields, but just as quick to extinguish when the fuel behind it is gone. “Sorry I lost my cool okay? But this is like… one of the sure-fire ways we can make sure he _eats_ , okay?”

Akechi raises an eyebrow, “You’re that concerned about his eating habits?” 

“Well, _yeah_ ,” Ann replies, “Have you seen how much he tries to do every day? For all of us, for… I don’t know how many people in the whole city? He spends all that time looking out for everyone else, of course we gotta make sure someone’s looking out for him too, right?” 

The Phantom Thieves are very devoted to their leader. A leader who gives perhaps too much of himself to people who may or may not deserve it, but who - at the very least - are aware of the gift they have. It’s a piece of the puzzle that is him, and them. 

“Plus, we’ve been doing this for months now,” Ann finished, “It’s kinda like team-building by now, you know? That’s why you’re invited too!” 

He still has to play along for now. With that in mind, he opens up his phone, poking and swiping until the page he wants is open. He lifts the phone up to show her.

“Might I make a suggestion? I _do_ happen to run a food blog,” he says cheerfully, and Ann’s eyes light up.

* * *

Going to the cafeteria isn’t an exercise in guts anymore, not with his record magically wiped clean, but it’s still something Ren can’t bring himself to do. And while the school store “miraculously” never runs out of stock, rewriting the laws of happiness and contentment doesn’t change the human body to make bread nourishing and not just filling. 

And then, to Ren’s surprise at lunch, there’s a vaguely familiar bento box placed on his desk carefully. 

He looks up, and Sumire’s there, blushing beneath her glasses. 

“I’ve started cooking more again,” she says, “It’s… it’s felt important, since it’s something that was always… it was always something _I_ was good at, and not Kasumi. Do you think you could try it? I promise it doesn’t all taste like curry this time!” 

She’s nervous, but Ann’s giving her a thumbs up and Morgana is purring in encouragement and when Ren’s not looking, he reaches a paw out for a baton pass.

* * *

He’s lost weight in prison, because of _course_ he has. All the work they’ve done in trying to take care of him nutritionally, lost over the course of a month and a half that they don’t remember most of.

But as much as they all want to fuss over him and feed him, they all defer to Sojiro’s expertise. And the food that he gives Ren is something light and easy to digest, something to help break his stomach back into having regular food again. 

They don’t know what they’ll do when he has to leave Tokyo in around a month. Maybe Makoto will manage to impress all of her thrifty good-eating habits on him by then. Maybe Futaba and Ryuji will sneak a box of supplements into his bags. Maybe Haru will find ways to ship good food out to him regularly in his hometown. Maybe no longer being a Phantom Thief or convicted criminal will _stop wreaking hell_ on Ren’s budget and stress levels and half of this won’t be near as much a problem anymore. 

But that’s then, and this is now. For now though, they’ll keep looking after him - their post-metaverse dinners exchanged for get-togethers three times a week or so. All that effort he's put into saving them can keep paying back dividends. 

It’s all they can do.


End file.
